Cultural Bias in Intelligence Testing

It
is extremely difficult to develop a test that measures innate
intelligence without introducing cultural bias. This has been virtually
impossible to achieve. One attempt was to eliminate language and design
tests with demonstrations and pictures. Another approach is to realize
that culture-free tests are not possible and to design culture-fair
tests instead. These tests draw on experiences found in many cultures.

Many college students have a middle-class background and may have
difficulty appreciating the biases that are part ofstandardized intelligence tests, because their own
background does not disadvantage them for these tests. By
doing some intelligence tests which make non-mainstream cultural
assumptions, students can come to experience some of the difficulties
and issues involved with culturally biased methods of testing
intelligence.

The Original
Australian Intelligence Test

Chitling Test
of Intelligence

One facetious attempt to develop an intelligence test that utilizes
distinctively black-ghetto experiences is the Chitling Test. It is a
humorous example that demonstrates well the built-in cultural bias found
in most IQ tests. The Chitling Test (formally, the Dove Counterbalance
General Intelligence Test) was designed by Adrian Dove, a Black
sociologist. Aware of the dialect differences, he developed this exam as
a half-serious attempt to show that American children are just not all
speaking the same language. Those students who are not "culturally
deprived" will score well. The original
test has 30 multiple-choice questions - go to
short version of the
Chitling Intelligence Test (15 questions).

Redden-Simons "Rap" Test

Other, similar tests have been developed for Blacks (for example, the
Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity byRobert L. Williams) and for the Chicano culture
and the Redden-Simons Rap Test.

The Redden-Simons "Rap"
Test is a50-item, multiple-choice test of
vocabulary items typical of "street language" in 1986, in Des Moines,
Iowa. On the short version of the Redden-Simons "Rap" test (12-items),
"street" individuals averaged eight correct items,
and college students averaged only two correct items.

Using "street" norms, any student who does not get at least five items
correct is mentally retarded.

Discussion
questions

After students have taken and scored their tests, many areas of
discussion are possible:

How would you feel if these
tests were used as a standardized
intelligence test?

Are these
intelligence tests fair? Why or why not?

What have you learned from taking this test in terms of how
non-middle-class individuals might feel about typicalstandardized tests?

How would you work with someone who scores at an IQ of only 90 on a
standardized intelligence test but very well on one of the
other intelligence tests?